Mr. Poyner was the 195th person to be executed in the United States since the Supreme Court allowed states to resume capital punishment in 1976.

Mr. Poyner appeared calm as he was led to the execution chamber and strapped into the chair by five guards. A chaplain read a statement from Mr. Poyner that expressed hope for healing "every hurt that has ever been done." The statement said, "I choose to forgive, and I ask to be forgiven."

Mr. Poyner lost a final Supreme Court appeal earlier Thursday in which he had sought to have Virginia's method of carrying out capital sentences, by electrocution, held in violation of the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Supreme Court voted 7 to 2 not to stop the execution after lawyers for the state contended that Mr. Poyner's appeal amounted to a delaying tactic.

Mr. Poyner was convicted of killing his victims in an 11-day crime spree that terrorized residents of southeast Virginia. Mr. Poyner robbed his victims and said he had shot them because he did not want to leave witnesses. He said he had chosen women because they were easily frightened.

The victims were Joyce Baldwin, the manger of a hair salon in Hampton; Louise Paulett, the manager of a Williamsburg motel; Chestine Brooks, a housekeeper at the motel; Vicki Ripple, a nursing student who was working at an ice cream store in Newport News, and Carolyn Hedrick, a candy distributor in Hampton.